Eyes on Me
by Kroissant
Summary: "Don't look at anything nor anyone," Felix instructs her, his eyes softening and his voice growing softer to a certain degree, "At all times, you must have your eyes on me," Annette gives him a weird look. What kind of a rule is that? Or is this a joke he came up with to major @martixkk on Twitter, with their request - Annette majoring music, and Felix majoring dance, college AU.


**Hello, this is Kroissant again! Here is my second batch out of many!**

**This one is a little special, as it's a request by martixkk on Twitter, who wishes to see felannie in college AU, with Annette majoring music and Felix majoring dance respectively. But in a twist, I made the atmosphere especially fairy-tale themed and giving Annette a pair of glasses as part of the symbolism for the title.**

**Before reading, I strongly recommend you all to listen to Kenny Loggin's 'For the First Time' as it's intertwined with the fanfic as a whole.**

**Okay, I should shut up right now.**  
**Let's start reading!**

* * *

**Meet me near the fountain at 9 PM  
**

Annette's heart skips a beat.

Inserting her phone inside the pocket of her thin, blue sweater, she coils her arms around herself and ventures ahead—to the place where they promised to meet.

With each step she took, the more excited she became.

The anticipation to see him again was building up inside her, and it only seemed to strengthen as she recalled the same message sent to her early in the afternoon.

A cold breeze swept by and she comes to a halt, her teeth chattering and body shivering to the core. She bites her lower lip, mentally cursing for having to underestimate the sudden change in weather. Despite being born and living most of her life in a region notorious for the cold—after all these years, her poor, brittle skin still couldn't adapt well with the frigid climate.

"Just a little more, Annie," She mutters to herself, pushing her thick, blue glasses to the bridge of her nose and continuing onward. After a good ten minutes of wandering around, pondering over which direction to take, a wave of relief overtakes her the moment she stumbles into the tunnel-like flower archway—blossoming with pink and red spring roses. Patches of greenery consume her line of vision, with the spiral-shaped hibiscus trees come and go the more she dares to keep going.

She smiles, knowing full well of where this would lead her.

As she passes through, she takes notice of the streetlamps perched near the crumbling edges of the silver, cobblestone pathway. The sheer golden glow of the light illuminating her path and guiding the way.

Soon, Annette found herself alone in a clearing, with a three-tiered white, marble fountain located at the very center. Speeding up her pace, Annette inhales a deep breath in, clenching her whitened fists. When she approaches the ornamental structure, she pauses in her tracks. She stands there, hands collected together in front of her long, cream gown. And then waits.

Every so often, she'll peek over her shoulder to stare and admire the twinkling reflections of the starlight sky on the surface of the rippling water. But when it lost her interest, she resumes to motioning her head left through right. She scrutinizes her eyes, searching for a familiar figure in the faraway distance.

Still nothing.

Getting anxious, Annette takes out her phone again.

She presses the middle button and right away, her eyes zoomed in on the current time—9:10PM.

She frowns at the same message which magically popped up again on the screen.

Could it be possible that he was running late?

"Maybe I should…" She mumbles under her breath, then stops and shakes her head. "No, I might be bothering him," A pause. "Okay, maybe one wouldn't hurt," Contemplating over what she should say, a thought crosses her mind. She smiles at this, nods to herself and taps on the middle button again. As she prepares to type in her message on the pop-up keyboard, a masculine voice from behind reaches her ears.

"What are you doing?"

Quickly, Annette turns the other way.

Big, blue eyes clash with sharp, amber.

"BAH!" She cries and retreats a few times, her heart pounding violently. Blinking her eyes, she looks up, bringing her fist close to her chest, completely out of breath. "Felix! What the hell?"

The man standing in front of her crosses his arms, tipping his head to the side. Though he remains calm and composed, there was a weird yet wonderful touch of mischief present across his facial features.

"What's with the reaction?" He asks casually, raising a brow. "I said to come, didn't I?"

Annette scoffs at this. Pointing a finger right at him, she exclaims aloud, "But did you have to sneak up on me like that? I mean, what gives?"

To her frustration, Felix shrugs. "That's what you get for not paying close attention to your surroundings," He counters back, dropping his arms to the side and placing them on his hips. As he opens his mouth again to speak, he stops himself and closes it. He stands still for a moment, taking notice of her constant shivering. "You cold?"

Annette blushes. "Oh, uh…" Out of reflex, she forces out a smile and laughs. "It's no big deal, really,"

Felix rolls his eyes and begins to unbutton his coat.

Annette watches him, her cheeks turning redder and quickly looks away, catching herself in time from ogling at him.

"Annette," Felix calls out her name, startling her. "Here, wear this," And presents his dark blue coat forward.

Touched by the gesture, Annette smiles, though it was quick to disappear and turn into a frown. "No, you don't have to," She tells him, rejecting his offer as politely as she could. "It's my fault for forgetting to grab my jacket and—"

Ignoring her wishes, Felix silently approaches her and drapes his coat on top of her shoulders. "Don't complain and just wear it, will you?"

Annette turns red, fidgeting awkwardly in her spot. They were merely standing inches away from each other, and she could feel his body warmth radiating off of him.

Ever so slowly, she lifts her chin a little, her heart thumping more ferociously than it was before. She stares admiringly at Felix who seemed a bit preoccupied trying to adjust the hood on her—appreciating the fine, sharp details of his face structure, how slightly ragged ponytail and messy his midnight, dark hair was, and under the rays of the moonlight, beautifully mirrored of what she would envision a true knight would look like underneath his clad of shiny armor.

Felix Hugo Fraldarius—a longtime classmate of hers since their days in high school, had grown considerably handsome…then again, it was all thanks to good genes he inherited from his family, predominately from his father's side.

"…So pretty,"

"You said something?"

Annette's eyes widen. "No, I didn't!" She cries quickly, blushing furiously.

Felix looks at her in confusion. Eventually, he sighs and backs away from her. "Still cold?"

Annette twirls around in a circle, beaming and letting out a short giggle as she pulls the flaps childishly. "Not anymore!" She responds delightfully, and rubs her bare hands together, tugging his coat closer to her chest. "Thank you," She expresses, and pushes her glasses to the brim of her nose for the second time, "But you know, you didn't have to,"

"You didn't give me much of a choice," Felix tells her casually and looks the other way. "Besides, I was the one who requested you to come here in the first place,"

Annette blinks, looking up to face him once more. That's right—there was a reason for this meeting. Becoming reminded of this, she flushes. Wait, it's just the two of them…and from the way how he's strangely acting around her, could this be what she thinks it is?

"Well, I'm here now," She brings up with another light-hearted smile, "So, what's up?"

They fell into silence for a minute.

Annette frowns a little. She observes the latter still looking away from her, testing a few voiceless words softly under his breath but couldn't hear it. "…Err, Felix?"

"I need a partner,"

Annette blinks once, then twice.

Was she hearing his words properly?

"Hold up, could you repeat what you just said?"

"I said that I need a partner," Felix echoes, louder this time for her to hear, "There's this dance I was assigned to do, and I need to get better at it by the end of this week,"

Annette listens intently, bobbing her head. "Okkkayy…" She trails off, clasping her hands behind her back. "But why me of all people? Don't you attend the same dancing class with Ingrid, Dorothea, and Sylvain? In my opinion, they are better qualified than me,"

It was true. Sure, she could dance but not as eloquently as those she mentioned.

There were properly many times, more than she could count, of tripping over her footing and falling flat on her face. She wasn't professionally skilled nor adept at the complex move set he was trained to perfect.

Hence why Annette chose to major music.

Unlike the difficulty of dancing recitals and memorizing hundreds of steps, composing and scripting her scores was different. She was free to experiment, run wild with her imagination and ideas, and be able to express herself passionately without ever having to worry about the constructive system that one would expect in dancing.

That being said, Annette knew how popular it was among her classmates: Ingrid, Dorothea, Sylvain…hell, even Rafael and Caspar is one of the unexpected few to take up the art of dancing as their minor—were all clear-cut candidates, all exceptional and distinct in every way, and better suited to dance with whatever his assignment could be. They knew the rules and regulations, how and when exactly to shift into another different movement and so forth.

And then there was her, a complete and intolerable mess.

Right now, she felt flattered he chose her but…

"This isn't like you, Felix," Annette retaliates, taking a step forward, "You are the type of person who'll be willing to risk it all just to perfect dancing patterns. Even your grades depend solely on how your performance!" She lets a long sigh escape her lips. "I make mistakes and I can't dance all too well," She admits truthfully, hanging her head. "I'm telling you, I'm not suitable for this."

A long silence followed.

Annette rubs her elbow. Looking up, she forces a sheepish smile, and begins to back away, "I should…probably get going—"

"Annette,"

Before she knew it, he was walking up to her.

Here they were again within proximity.

Annette did her best to suppress her squeal, her cheeks beet red as she looks up to lock eyes with him.

"You say that you're terrible," Felix began, "Let me be the judge of that," And outstretches his hand.

Annette gulps and looks down at his hand, then back up to face him. "Felix, I'm telling you—"

Felix closes in, reaches out to take her freezing right hand and encloses it with his. Using his other hand, he tugs at her wrist and pulls her forward.

Annette squeaks, though luckily, Felix manages to catch her safely, his chest cushioning her entire red face, slanting her glasses halfway.

They lock eyes again and this time, Felix surprises her with a smirk of his own.

"If we are going to dance, I need you to keep in mind of my one rule,"

Annette nods a little. "What is it?"

"Don't look at anything nor anyone," Felix instructs her, his eyes softening and his voice growing softer to a certain degree, "At all times, you must have your eyes on me,"

Annette gives him a weird look. What kind of a rule is that? Or is this a joke he came up with to make her feel better? Such a thought made her grin. "And what if I don't?" She asks teasingly.

Felix mirrors her grin. "I'll just have to kiss you,"

…

…

…

What did he just say?

Annette flushes deeply, as bright as a red tomato.

"Y-you can't be serious!?" She suddenly exclaims, high-pitched and eccentric. Surely, he was pulling her leg and did not mean anything…right?

Felix leans closer, pressing his forehead against hers. "I never joke Annette," He confirms, causing her to blush. "Now let's begin,"

"Woah, wait, wait! Hold up!" Annette cries, and the latter halts in his steps for a brief moment, "What if I fall?"

"I'll catch you," Felix immediately answers.

Annette chews her bottom lip. She shakes her head, refusing to believe in his words. "You are seriously choosing the wrong person," She says in a low, defeated tone, "I'm telling you; I'm going to mess up for sure,"

"You won't," Felix assures and squeezes their intertwined hands gently. "I promise you that,"

Annette's breathing hitched. Her blush was developing into a burning, hot flame.

Still, she does her best to maintain her composure and purses her lips. Despite how convincing he sounds; the idea of dancing still left a bitter taste in her mouth. She sneaks a glance up at him.

The stunning silver glow of the moonlight was shining down on him, basking his figure with its ethereal enchantment…

For a second there, Annette was almost certain everything that was happening was nothing more than a fantastical dream of hers.

But if it were a dream—

"You ready?"

She takes a deep breath and sighs.

Meeting his eyes once more, she finally nods. "As I'll ever be,"

—just this once, she refuses to wake up.

* * *

The two started with a slow, and sloppy execution.

As Annette predicted, the move set was tricky to understand but thanks to Felix's recommendation—removing her boots and settling her bare feet on top of his own, and him taking the lead, in a way, the dancing became a little bit bearable to tolerate.

For the next two minutes, all was well, and Annette tried hard not to look down or trip over.

"You're stiff," Felix points out and rubs her back soothingly. "You alright?"

"Yeah, I'm good," Annette replies, and heaving a deep breath, eases to the beat of their dancing. She could feel the knots in her shoulders beginning to relax ad unwind, and she smiles. Even so, she was unable to shake off the fear of making a mistake.

A little peek wouldn't hurt, right?

Yes, if she could somehow find a way to get him distracted, then—

She feels a soft press of lips touch her red, left cheeks and she jolts in place, the rushing sensation forcing her to return to reality. With widened eyes, she swiftly looks up to check on Felix who gives her a devilish smirk.

"Hey, what was that for?"

"I told you I was going to kiss you if you looked down," He tells her casually, causing her to burn up. "Or did you forget already?"

Annette frowns deeply. "I didn't look down!"

"I saw your eyes slightly drift a little, so it counts," Felix states matter-of-factly, and flashes a smug look at her direction. "I'm telling you, I don't kid around,"

Annette puffs her cheeks.

Unbelievable.

"Eyes on me," Felix reminds her, and hoisting his arm high, proceeds to spin her around a few times, catching her off-guard and resulting in the hood covering her head to fall back. Unsurprisingly, his footwork was fluid with barely little to no effort to the coordination of their dancing.

Annette smiles at this, giggling as her world turns blurry around her.

After spinning for the third time, Felix pulls her closer to him again, startling her by leaning in and pressing their foreheads together.

With Felix at a dangerously close distance between her—the tip of his nose inches away from hers—Annette found himself unable to breathe properly.

"Umm…Felix—"

Her sentence gets cut off and she missteps, squishing his foot and erupting into a loud yelp as she nearly topples over him.

True to his word, Felix catches her, his hand snaking around her waist and bringing her close in a protective manner.

Annette blushes deeply. "Crap! I'm so sorry," She apologizes, removing herself off of him and looking away.

Again, she felt the soft brush of his lips grazing her cheeks and she shudders. She looks up again for the umpteenth time and finds herself mesmerized by the warm color of amber.

"Annette," Felix calls out her name in a beautiful soft-sweet whisper, "Eyes on me, please,"

And she does.

Was he always this gentle?

Since when was he like this?

Annette contemplates over this discovery—she wouldn't describe herself as the perspective type, but how could she overlook something as big as this?

This is the same Felix, right?

If so, what's with him suddenly being patient with her, chuckling, teasing, and smiling at her?

To her, it was strangely foreign—catching him on the act and doing things—kissing and cushioning her fall so uncharacteristically.

And yet…somehow, Annette couldn't help but secretly wish for this to not end.

"Eyes on me," He tells her for the third time, and Annette nods meekly in response.

Breathing in, she draws closer to him, placing the side of her head along the crook of his neck.

She could feel him grew tense, though became short-lived.

And then she felt it—a fast-beating thump, in tune with hers.

"…Felix?"

"Hmm?"

"What do you think of me? Am I a classmate? A friend?" Annette wonders aloud, fluttering her eyes wide open. She looks up and they meet eyes, their bodies still fluidly flowing to the composition of their step sequence. "Or am I merely an acquaintance you respect?"

Felix says nothing but stares at her deeply, his eyes flickering and for a split second, she notices his soft expression faltering.

He looked rather hesitated to answer her.

Deep down, Annette refused to hear of what he truly thought of her.

Sure, as of right now, he was being playful around with her, but was it nothing sort of banter between them? Thanks to their departments collaborating this year, she and Felix manage to see each other more often than not. Almost six months went by and she could feel the awkwardness between them had thawed, blossoming into something strange yet new—the beginning of a friendship.

She wrote songs and music for him to dance and later critique her work.

They were a great team, working hard to accomplish what they wanted to strive for.

Annette valued their friendship more than anything, and it hurt her when she realized, about two weeks earlier, that she had fallen hard for him.

She valued his company, and how he always seemed to be one of the two (the other being Claude), to have genuine interest and appreciation of the scores she makes during her spare-time. She loved it when he would poke on the figurative meetings of her lyrics, and encouraging her to keep going at it and expressing how he wanted to be the first to hear the new verses she came up with.

And from there, more reasons came and by then, Annette was plummeting deeper and deeper.

By now, it was too late for her to get back on the surface and ignore the growing desire to be with him.

And so instead, the rejection was all she could ever wish.

To hear the words of "I don't feel the same way" or "I much prefer to be friends than lovers", and then after a good long week of being consoled by Mercie, Lysithea, Hilda, and Ingrid, eating countless scoops of ice cream and beating the shit out of her pillow with his face on it—she'll be able to peacefully move on and focus her full concentration on her studies and future.

Yup, that's exactly what she convinced herself to hear and wholeheartedly accept.

And here it was, the big moment of truth.

"Felix?"

No response.

Annette cracks an empathic smile.

"You don't have to tell me right now," She assures him with a bashful grin, "I won't get mad," She dips her head a little downwards, unaware that she had yet again broken eye contact with him. "I'm just a bit curious, you know?"

She closes her eyes and inhales a sharp breath. "I just…want to know if—"

A hand cups her chin, gently elevating it up, surprising her.

Again, Annette faces her partner who stares at her silently and longingly. "Fe—"

Felix dives straight in, kissing her, and the world went still.

His hand rests below her ear, his thumb caressing her cheek as their breaths mingled.

Quickly, he slips away, leaving her breathless and aching for more.

"Does that answer your question?"

Annette opens her mouth but stops herself, thinking it over.

Felix waits for her patiently, and while doing so, brings his hand forward to gently tuck the loose strand behind her ear. "Or do you need more convincing?"

Finally, Annette looks up and rewards him with a winning smile. "I'd like that,"

Felix musters a small smile. "Alright then," And then dips down, closing his eyes and moving in to land another sweet kiss on her lips.

Once again, Annette felt her toes getting curled and ever so slightly, goes on her tip-toes to exert more pressure in their lip-lock. Inside her, it was as a foreign feeling unlike any other—but it was warm, inviting, and intoxicating, just like him.

And she loved it.

In a heat of the moment, Annette grasps the collar of his loose, black shirt and pulls him forward, and to her delight, Felix eagerly reciprocates.

She smiles through the kiss, her heart beating twice as fast.

Finally, they parted away.

Catching her breath, Annette veers her gaze down to their feet, with hers on top of his. Again, she feels the familiar touch of his hand cupping her chin and brings it upward and finds herself lost in his eyes.

"Don't look at anybody else except for me," Felix expresses softly, "Eyes on me, and me only,"

Annette continues to stare at him and as she slowly nods, suddenly it occurs to her.

His words.

This whole time, her worries and fears of not being accepted—all along, the answer was right there in front of her and all she needed to do was read carefully behind the lines.

And if this was true, could that mean that this whole time, his request to meet up with her tonight, was it all part of his clever plan to tell her?

She emits a light giggle, producing a sweet smile. "I don't have to," She replies, and seizes their hands together, intertwining them. "When you've always been on my mind this whole time,"

Her smile grew wider as she watches Felix turn crimson and uttering a few words under his breath, proceeds to turn away and look elsewhere.

Instinctively, Annette reaches out to graze the surface of her hand along his reddened cheek. Going on her tip-toes, she surprises him with a kiss on the nose.

At this, Felix shifts his attention back on her, his eyes slightly widened at her sudden action.

Pulling away, Annette simply smiles. "Eyes on me now," She teases, using his words to her advantage.

Felix blinks, still flustered and yet, allows a smile to creep in.

Taking the lead this time, Annette lets the music in her head to overtake her, closing her eyes and twirling around—more frolicking, bouncing, and a few of her silly tunes buzzing out from her lips.

Removing her feet off of his, she takes the opportunity to change the tides of their dance, straying away from the fountain and heading directly on the path to the blossom-covered archways.

Felix lets her do so, naturally in-tune with her original footwork, unable to wipe off the wide grin off his face. He leans in again, pressing their foreheads against each other, and for the rest of the night, they danced away to their heart's content—bundles of laughter filling the open air.

The joy, the smiles, the wonder, and perfecting the beat of their silent, and lovely duet.

The dancer and his lovely muse—together, they danced the night away with their moon as their only witness.

* * *

**Thank you so much for reading!**

**Comments/kudos are greatly appreciated!**

**Honestly, this was difficult to tackle as I couldn't get a better grasp as to how exactly I wanted to write it. So, I watched hours of videos on youtube on dancing and ended up becoming drawn to the one from Disney Enchanted, with the song 'So Close' among one of my favorite dancing songs.**

**'Eyes on Me' came out of nowhere and I ended up using it as a way to symbolically and emotionally intertwine the pair's feelings through their dance.**

**I hope I was able to express it, haha!**

**That being said, we have one more left to go-the third and final one and then later this week, will be the fourth fanfic posted!**

**Once again, thank you so much for your overwhelming support!**  
**See you guys in the next fanfic!**


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